Business Directories

Etisalat, Alcatel in 4G light radio network tie-up

Barcelona, March 1, 2012

UAE's leading telecom operator Etisalat said it has joined hands with Alcatel-Lucent to make the first 4G LTE mobile broadband connection in the UAE using light radio technology.

The duo sucessfully completed a technology trial with the groundbreaking light Radio portfolio highlighting how it can meet fast-growing customer demand for high-bandwidth mobile broadband services.

A leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services, Alcatel-Lucent said this new offering is part of its market-leading light Radio Small Cells product family, and based on the light Radio cube.

It extends a service provider’s LTE network to provide hot-spot coverage in densely populated areas such as shopping malls, airports, and sports stadiums.

The companies have reached a crucial milestone in the move toward the commercial introduction of light Radio to address the exploding demand for high-speed mobile data services, said senior Etisalat officials on the sidelines of 'Mobile World Congress 2012' in Barcelona, Spain.

Etisalat lately had invested Dh6 billionto enhance the network infrastructure and the development of fiber optic networks and access the central system of LTE, according to Obaid Bokisha, senior VP networks planning and management-Etisalat group and Saeed Al Zarouni, senior VP mobile networks Etisalat UAE.

'This move has resulted in the launch of the first investment and real experience in fourth-generation network system in the UAE. Etisalat created thousand main stations, and extends LTE services through the major cities to cover 80 per cent of the population,' they added.

Alcatel-Lucent had earlier showcased the capabilities of its new light Radio Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) product at Etisalat’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi, making the lightning-fast data connection over Etisalat’s commercial 4G LTE network, also powered by Alcatel-Lucent.

In October last year, Alcatel-Lucent and Etisalat had signed an agreement to jointly develop the most sustainable and efficient way to meet this demand using the groundbreaking light Radio portfolio.

This successful trial of the latest technology marks a major milestone in turning that promise into a reality, said Etisalat officials at the giant mobile event.

Tests conducted prior to the successful trial showed that service providers deploying the MRO in their LTE network could see improvements in capacity and performance that would allow them to realize cost savings of up to 40 per cent while delivering high-quality, lightning-fast 4G data services to subscribers.

Commeniting on the milestone, Stephen Carter, the EMEA president Alcatel-Lucent’s said, 'The work completed as part of this successful project has yielded valuable data about how service providers such as Etisalat can easily deploy our metrocells to transform the mobile broadband experience for their customers, while cutting their power consumption, costs and equipment footprint.' -TradeArabia News Service